Knight Letter No. 28

Km

THE LEWIS CARROLL SOCIETY )1 OF NORTH AMERICA

NUMBER 28 SPRING 1988

Fall Meeting of LCSNA
Features Exciting Program

Dr. Bernard McTigue Dr. Genevieve Smith

The Fall meeting of the LCSNA was held
on Saturday, October 24, in the Gallery of
the Century Association on West 43rd
Street in New York. More than fifty
members and guests attended.

President Ed Guiliano thanked Dr.
Morton Cohen and Janet Jurist for
arranging the meeting and the luncheon.
The minutes from the previous meeting
were accepted as read, and the Treasurer's
report summarized. Mention was made of
the new format of the Knight Letter and
its scheduling as a quarterly, with Stan
Marx as the new editor, a position he
first filled in 1974 when the LCSNA started.

Morton Cohen then read a moving
tribute to the recently-deceased Roger
Lancelyn Green (see page two). A
resolution, passed at the Executive
Committee meeting, to write to Mrs.
Green expressing our sorrow at her
husband's passing, was the final
announcement in the brief business
meeting which preceeded the program.

The first speaker was Dr. Bernard
McTigue, Curator of the Arents

Collection at the New York Public Library.
He presented an illustrated lecture,
entitled "Lewis Carroll in the New York
Public Library: Profile of a Research
Collection. " It included a summary of the
rare materials at the Library, amounting
to almost 1700 items. Dr. McTigue pointed
out that Lewis Carroll is one of very few
authors collected in translation by the
Library.

From the physical artifacts of Lewis
Carroll to an interpretation of the Alice
texts was accomplished by the next
speaker, Dr. Genevieve Brunet Smith of
Virgina Commonwealth University, who
spoke on "Lewis Carroll, Ionesco, and the
Theatre of the Absurd." After tracing the
history of the Theatre of the Absurd from
its French beginnings in the 1950s to its
decline in the 1960s, Dr. Smith also
pointed out that Ionesco, in his memoirs,
acknowledged his debt to Carroll. This was
illustrated by a series of dramatic readings
by four actors, who presented scenes from
Ionesco's The Professor, followed by
readings from the Alice books.

Continued on Page 4

Joyce Rose Hines
1929-1987

We are deeply grieved to report that Dr.
Joyce Rose Hines, a founder and former
vice-president of the LCSNA, passed away
on November 26th of last year.

Born in Poughkeepsie, New York in
1929, and educated in New York City's
schools, she established herself as a superb
student, excelling in French, Latin and
English at Hunter College High School
and went on to graduate Summa Cum
Laude and Phi Beta Kappa at Hunter
College.

The following year, she joined the staff
of the United Nations and soon exhibited
the same creativity, organizational genius
and punctilious attention to detail that
had marked her educational career. She
rose through the ranks to the level of staff
officer in the Population Division and was
chosen to represent it at conferences in
Denmark, Switzerland and the Soviet
Union. Dr. Hines earned her Master's
Degree in English Literature at Columbia
University and her Doctorate in the same
field at the Graduate Center of City
University of New York. Her dissertation,
Getting Home, traced Christian influences
in the works of George MacDonald and
Charles Williams. She was a member of
both the MacDonald and Williams
Societies.

Joyce had a particular appreciation for
old books and the crockery' and figurines
of 19th century England, along with
Rackham, Steinlen and Peake.

Alivelong friend of the theatre, she was
a member of Actor's Equity, and performed,
Continued on Page 3

Roger Lancelyn Green

Foremost Lewis Carroll Scholar

PROFILE:

Maxine Schaefer
Secretary, LCSNA

Roger Lancelyn Green at the time of the
publication of his edition of " The Diaries of
Lewis Carroll" (1954)

Roger Lancelyn Green, foremost Lewis
Carroll scholar of our age, died on October
8, 1987, at the age of 68. His melliflous
name elicits praise in both nurseries and
halls of academe. With his passing, we lose
not only a great expert on Lewis Carroll
but one of the most varied writers in
English, a Renaissance figure, a landed
gentleman who, with pen and ink (never
a typewriter), produced nearly a hundred
volumes of literature and history, both
scholarly and popular, for young and old.

Educated at Liverpool College and
Merton College, Oxford, he was, for a
time, Assistant Librarian at Merton. He
came under the spell of Neville Coghill,
entered the world of amateur theatricals,
and acted for the Oxford University
Dramatic Society. While at University, he
met a vivacious undergraduate, June
Burdett, whom he later married. For his
B. Litt., he wrote on Andrew Lang, and
out of this thesis grew his biography of
Lang, which remains the definitive study
to this day. After Oxford, Roger Green
went to London, where he played on both
the legitimate stage (including a part in
Peter Pan) and in pantomime.

In 1947, his father, a retired major who
held the Military Cross, died and Green
became Lord of the Manors of
Poulton-Lancelyn and Lower Bebington
of theWirral in Cheshire. He and his wife
settled into Poulton Hall, where the
Lancelyn Greens had lived since before the
Norman Conquest, a spacious, secluded
manor house surrounded by manicured
lawns that lead the eye to an unobstructed
view of the mountains of North Wales.

At Poulton, Green took easily to the
long, cloister-like library with arched
cubicles filled with books, and set to work
writing volume after volume, on the
Classics, on A.E.W Mason, Mrs.
Molesworth, Stanley Weyman, J. M.
Barrie, C. S. Lewis, and his special
favorites, Rudyard Kipling and Lewis
Carroll. He attended to his estates and

carried on a vast correspondence with
literary figures the world over. His wife,
meanwhile, raised their three children,
refurbished Poulton Hall, and taught
drama at a local college.

Poulton Hall gradually became a Mecca
for friends of the Greens: Neville Coghill
came, as did C. S. Lewis, with whom Green
shared a love of Greece, and stage
personalities, too, including Harry
Andrews, Tommy Trinder and Joyce
Redman. The theater remained a
dominant force in Green s life and Poulton
Hall, inside, outside, and sometimes both,
was, from season to season, turned into a
theatrical stage set. Among the
productions they staged there was a
remarkable Midsummer Night's Dream on
the front lawn that used real horses and
flights of doves. Both Green and his wife
played parts in it. There was a production
otColmus; a Greek play; and a magnificent
Through the Looking-Glass, where the
audience sat in a carousel that, thanks to
the sineWs of dozens of Boy Scouts, was
pushed on its axle to allow the seated
audience to revolve from scene to scene.

None of these community efforts
diminished Green's literary output. From
his pen poured forth biographies, critical
studies, short stories, books of poetry,
edited texts, translations of the Classics,
and anthologies. For 23 years he edited the
quarterly Kipling Journal. His reputation
as a scholar acquired new force with his
two-volume edition of Lewis Carroll's
diaries and his revision of The Lewis Carroll
Handbook, even as he achieved consider-
able popular renown by his retelling of
Greek and Norse myths and Arthurian
legends. His Tellers of Tales, essays on
children's authors since 1800, has gone into
numerous editions and is a classic blend
of scholarship and popular writing.

When Green first came to the United
States, he had a number of speaking
engagements before him. The first took
place at Barnard College a bare two hours
after his scheduled arrival at Kennedy
airport. His host rushed him from the
airport towards Manhattan. Sirens blared
(though not on their account), traffic was
thick, and the famous skyline loomed
ahead. When they arrived at Barnard and
Green stepped up to the dais, he began,
whimsically, by confiding to a sea of
undergraduates that he then really knew,
for the first time in his life, what it meant
to step through the looking-glass and come
out on the other side. He went on to talk
eloquently about Lewis Carroll, without
any notes, sparkling with Carrollian quips
and quiddities and a good many anecdotes
of his own. The audience was ecstatic: it
seemed to many there that they had
actually encountered Lewis Carroll
himself. Continued on Page 3

Maxine Schaefer, a Washington, D.C.
native and Secretary of LCSNA since its
founding, spends her days working for the
National Institutes of Health, and her
nights laboring for LCSNA. Her
fascination with Lewis Carroll started with
her exposure to her future mother-in-law's
Lewis Carroll collection (started in 1891).
On her honeymoon, she insisted that her
new husband perform parental duties by
purchasing a Mexican 'Alice" for the
collection. After her mother-in-law's
death, Maxine kept the collection alive,
long distance, by purchasing books in
Washington, and inserting them into the
New York collection. The collection has
now been inherited by the Schaefers, and
Maxine's speciality is Lewis Carroll
parodies.

Maxine's busiest time as Secretary was
caused by a wasp who wore a wig. She
handled approximately five thousand
pieces of correspondence after the Society
published the book. She claims that one
of the biggest thrills of her life was
representing LCSNA at the laying of the
Lewis Carroll memorial stone at
Westminster Abbey in 1982.

She never believes six impossible things
before breakfast, but often accomplishes
them.

John Fleming

Prominent Book Dealer

John Fleming, who, as a teenager, became
a protege of Dr. Rosenbach and carried
the Alice manuscript to the office after it
was sold to Dr. R in 1927, passed away
shortly after the new year.

Mr. Fleming was instrumental in urging
his client, who owned the original unused
proofs, to allow the LCSNA to issue The
Wasp in the Wig.

Pamphlet Project Editors
Seeking "Lost" Items

The LCSNA project to issue a series of
books on all the pamphlets of Lewis
Carroll has good news and bad. The good
news is that the first volume on the Oxford
pamphlets is expected to be issued within
the year, with the second volume, the
mathematical pamphlets following on its
heels. In all, six volumes are projected.

The "bad" news is that there are some
elusive pamphlets which are being dili-
gently searched for, and it is hoped that mem-
bers can be of help. These pamphlets are:

Notes on the First Part of Algebra - 1861.
General List of Subjects - 1863
Algebraical Formulae - 1868 fcf 1870

Arithmetical Formulae and Rules - 1870

Symbols to be Used in Euclid - 1872

Purity of Election - 1881

Rules for Reckoning Postage - 1883

Profits of Authorship - 1884

Circular &f Prospectus About a House - 1885

Circular About Counters - 1886

Should anyone know of the whereabouts
of the above pamphlets, please write to the
Editor of the Knight Letter. All help will
be acknowledged. If anyone has
information about pamphlets not
mentioned in the LC Handbook, the
editors will be grateful beyond words.

Wendy Lesser s first book, The Life Below
the Ground, a study of the subterranean in
literature and history, was recently
published by Faber and Faber. Replete
with Alician underground references,
Alice's experiences are called analogous to
some drug-induced symptoms in patients
suffering from Paralysis Agitans. $19.95.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and
Gravity's Rainbow: A Study in Duplex
Fiction. Danuta Zadworna-Fjellestad.
Stockhom Studies in English, Vol. 68, 1986.
Published by Almquesta-Wiksell Books.
$20.00

Audio Language Studies, Niagara Falls,
NY 14305, offers a "sight and sound"
Alice — a cassette accompanied by a tran-
script book, designed for classroom use.

Belated notice: The September 1986 issue
of Amazing contained a story by member
Ruth Berman. Called "In a Season of Calm
Weather", it brings together those three
lovely child heroines, Alice, Dorothy of Oz
and Wendy of Peter Pan.

Explorations in the Field of Nonsense.
Edited by Wim Tigges. Amsterdam 1987.
Distributed in the US by Humanities
Press, 171 First Avenue, Atlantic
Highlands, NJ 07716. Contains an essay on
Lear and Carroll by Lisa Ede.

The Walrus and the Carpenter. Lewis
Carroll. Illustrations by Jane Breskin
Zalben. NY: Henry Holt. $13.95. Once

again, the illustrator who gave us a
colorful, spirited Jabberwocky, takes on
another Carroll gem, The Walrus and the
Carpenter. The portly walrus and the
solemn carpenter again eat their way
through the innocent oysters, who, in Ms.
Zalben's unusual style, wear little shoes
and have children's heads. In the end, only
the shoes are left. Never have oysters
looked so delightful; never has there been
two crueler gourmands!

Very Truly Yours, Charles L. Dodgson, Alias
Lewis Carroll. Lisa Bassett. NY: Lothrop,
Lee & Shepard. $15.95.
As an introduction to Lewis Carroll, this
book, which probably has the longest title
in the Dodgson canon, captures the spirit
that is most delightful in Carroll. It brings
together many of his most charming letters
to children, along with the games, puzzles,
rhymes and riddles that he created for his
most appreciative audience.

riineS Continued from Page 1

mainly in musicals off-Broadway, at
Princeton University and in summer stock.
Her interest in Lewis Carroll began with
The Walrus and the Carpenter in fourth
grade. Lewis Carroll continued to delight
her throughout her life. She immersed
herself in Alice lore, and lectured on her
favorite topic with all the enthusiasm,
humor and whimsy of the man she so
wholeheartedly appreciated.

(The above was written by Jane and Myron Reis,
sister and brother-in-law of Joyce Hines).

Charles and Stephanie Lovett,
bookdealers in Winston-Salem, NC, and
members of the LCSNA have assembled a
book of their Lewis Carroll collection. The
volume, which will probably be issued this
Fall, will be 400 or so pages in size,
containing numerous illustrations and a
comprehensive index, as well as
frontispiece of Alice and her sisters done
by Carroll in 1862 and previously
unrecorded. The dust jacket design will
contain a potrait of Lewis Carroll done by
Barry Moser.

Careen Continued from Page 2

The books kept coming — but then
they stopped. Green was ill and could not
put pen to paper. His mind, though,
remained as clear and sharp as ever. Only
five weeks before he died, a Carroll scholar
put a difficult Lewis Carroll problem to
him in hospital near his home, and though
at least two other Carroll experts had
struggled unsuccessfuly with it, Green
solved it.

He was exceptional in many ways.
Deeply religious, he subscribed to
traditional values that many now think
belong to a bygone age. But he posessed a
rare character and a unique talent that
transcend time. He was generous to a
fault, a welcoming man who loved good
food, good drink, good conversation, and
good books. He had a quick wit and
laughed easily. His sharp turn of phrase,
his sense of humor, his elegant,
enthusiastic yet modest style of address
won him many friends on both sides of the
Atlantic.

His work will live on, certainly, and will
speak for itself to future generations. But
those who were fortunate enough to know
him will remember him for his friendly
warmth, his sense of fun, and his
magnanimous spirit. Morton Cohen

Audubon Magazine

from our far-flung

correspondents

The Theatre Wing: Two important
productions were staged recently - the
Manhattan Project's Alice, last produced
in New York, almost twenty years ago, was
performed from March 18 through April 3
at the Sanford Meisner Theater. Local
LCSNA members were alerted to the
production, which was directed by Eric
Keith and starred a varied cast of off-off-off
Broadway actors. . .

performance should be "marked with a
white stone". . .

Mr" A\

'1 J J 'w

dfa^ddr

772f c«j< of the Manhattan Project's Alice.
Each actor acted out several roles.

David Del Tredici's music accompanied
the production of Haddock's Eye's, which
arrived on Broadway at the end of
December. Tom Hulce, moving from his
role of Mozart in the film production of
Amadeus, quoted from Carroll's diaries
and letters "with precise diction and
understanding," according to the critic of
the New York Times, who felt the

An exhibit at the Crocker Art Museum in
Sacramento displayed a rich variety of
Lewis Carroll material, a good part of it
from the collection of former LCSNA
president Dr. Sandor Burstein. The
exhibition ran from November 24 to
January 11. . . In answer to our query in the
last issue concerning the Cleveland Public
Library's ownership of Alice Liddell
material, Joel Birenbaum writes to tell us
that during a recent visit to the library, the
librarian whom he questioned could find
no trace of either Alice's birthday book or
LC's bible. . . Joel runs the Alice
Collector's Network, which acts as a
clearing house for members who wish to
dispose of LC material. Joel's address is
2486 Brunswick Circle, Woodridge, IL
60517. . . Earl Abbe tells us that on a recent
trip to King Ridge ski resort in New
London, NH had him skiing through
Wonderland. The ski trails and slopes had
such names as The Lobster Quadrille, The
Jabberwockyand Brillig'sRun — twenty in
all, and all named after LC people and
places. . . Al Lum, a mathematics teacher
at a Houston, Texas intermediate school,
uses episodes from Alice to introduce math
concepts to his honor classes. . . As a
symbol, the Alice books continue to trigger

the imagination no matter what the
occasion. Recent issues of Barron's and
Forbes, well-known financial journals, used
Alice imagery to comment on the financial
scene.

The recent rash of mail order catalogues
reveals the amazing amount of Alice
figurines, dolls, ornaments and statuary
available to collectors who are ready to
stocka museum of these collectibles. . . An
AIW clock, for $58.00 from Montege,
Edison, NJ 08820. . . Painted pewter
Tenniel figurines from My Favorite
Pastimes, $67.50 to $98.00, from My
Favorite Pastimes, Oak Park, IL 60303. . .

Fall Meeting Continued from Page 1

The final presentation was Pat Griffin's
"Rhyming Alice," a sequence of
dramatized episodes from the Alice books
directed to a children's audience. Pat is a
major participant of the Anyplace theatre,
the group which presents the program.

Following the meeting, some of the
members went to see a performance of a
musical play, Alice in America by Jaz
Dorsey. Presented at the Greek Orthodox
Church on the upper West Side, the play
used some Alice characters in the colorful,
amusing action. August A. Imholtz, Jr.

For assistance in preparing this issue, we would like to thank Earl Abbe, Joel Birenbaum, Richard Boot he, Elizabeth Erickson, Johanna Hurwitz,
V. A. Lanza, Nancy Lindblom, Lucille Posner, Larry Wilson, and Zenobia Zyck. Special thanks to Dr. Sandor Burstein for his many contributions.

The Knight Letter is the official newsletter of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America and is distributed free to all mem-
bers. Subscriptions, business correspondence and inquiries should be addressed to the Secretary, LCSNA, 617 Rockford
Road, Silver Spring, MD 20902. Submissions and editorial correspondence should be sent to: Stan Marx, 15 Sinclair Martin
Drive, Roslyn, NY 11576 Designed and produced by Jack Golden, Designers 3 , Inc.

Lewis Carroll Society
of North America
617 Rockford Road
Silver Spring, MD 20902.